upon a stricter inquiry, it appearing dubious to our reformers, as it doth still to many learned men, whether the woman mentioned in the scripture that was appointed for the Gospel, were Mary Magdalene or not; they thought it more proper to discontinue the festival. However, as I have mentioned the other parts of the service, I will also give the reader the Collect that was appointed, which he will observe was very apt and suitable to the Gospel. The Collect. Merciful Father, give us grace that we never presume to sin through the example of any creature: but if it shall chance us at any time to offend thy divine Majesty, that then we may truly repent and lament the same, after the example of Mary Magdalene, and by a lively faith obtain remission of all our sins, through the only merits of thy Son our Saviour Christ. Amen. 26. Saint Ann, Mary. §. 6. St. Ann was the mother of the blessed Virgin Mary and the wife of Joachim her father. mother to the An ancient piece of the sacred genealogy, set blessed Virgin down formerly by Hippolitus the martyr, is preserved in Nicephorus. 23 "There were three sisters of Bethlehem, daughters of Matthan the priest and Mary his wife, under the reign of Cleopatra and Casopares king of Persia, before the reign of Herod, the son of Antipater: the eldest was Mary, the second was Sobe, the youngest's name was Ann. The eldest being married in Bethlehem, had for daughter Salome the midwife: Sobe the second likewise married in Bethlehem, and was the mother of Elizabeth; last of all the third married in Galilee, and brought forth Mary the mother of Christ." SECT. VIII. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in August. Lammas-day. THE first day of this month is commonly called Lammas-day, though in the Roman Church it is August 1. generally known by the name of the feast of St. Peter in the fetters, being the day of the commemoration of St. Peter's imprisonment. For Eudoxia, the wife of Theodosius the emperor, having made a journey to Jerusalem, was there presented with the fetters which St. Peter was loaded with in prison: which she presented to the pope, who afterwards laid them up in a church built by Theodosius in honour of St. Peter. Eudoxia, in the mean time, having ob 23 Niceph. lib. ii. cap. 3, vol. i. p. 136, A. served that the first of August was celebrated in memory of Augustus Cæsar, (who had on that day been saluted Augustus, and had upon that account given occasion to the changing of the name of the month from Sextilis to August,) she thought it not reasonable that a holy-day should be kept in memory of a heathen prince, which would better become that of a godly martyr; and therefore obtained a decree of the emperor, that this day for the future should be kept holy in remembrance of St. Peter's bonds. The reason of its being called Lammas-day, Why so called. some think was a fond conceit the popish people had, that St. Peter was patron of the Lambs, from our Saviour's words to him, Feed my lambs. Upon which account they thought the mass of this day very beneficial to make their lambs thrive. Though Somner's account of it is more rational and easy, viz. that it is derived from the old Saxon plafmærre, i. e. Loaf-mass, it having been the custom of the Saxons to offer on that day an oblation of loaves made of new wheat, as the first-fruits of their new corn. tion of our Lord. §. 2. The festival of our Lord's transfigura6. Transfigura- tion in the mount is very ancient. In the Church of Rome indeed it is but of late standing, being instituted by pope Calixtus in the year 1455; but in the Greek Church it was observed long before. 7. Name of Jesus. §. 3. The seventh of August was formerly dedicated to the memory of Afra, a courtezan of Crete; who being converted to Christianity by Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, suffered martyrdom, and was commemorated on this day: how it came afterwards to be dedicated to the name of Jesus, I do not find. 10. Saint Laurence, archdea martyr. §. 4. St. Laurence was by birth a Spaniard, and treasurer of the Church at Rome, being deacon to con of Rome, and Sixtus the pope about the year 259. When his bishop was haled to death by the soldiers of Valerian the emperor, St. Laurence would not leave him, but followed him to the place of execution, expostulating with him all the way, "O father, where do you go without your son? You never were wont to offer sacrifice without me." Soon after which, occasion being taken against him by the greedy pagans, for not delivering up the church-treasury, which they thought was in his custody, he was laid upon a gridiron, and broiled over a fire: at which time he behaved himself with so much courage and resolution, as to cry out to his tormentors, that "he was rather comforted than tormented;" bidding them withal "turn him on the other side, for that was broiled enough." His martyrdom was so much esteemed in aftertimes, that Pulcheria the empress built a temple to his honour, which was either rebuilt or enlarged by Justinian. Here was the gridiron on which he suffered laid up, where (if we may believe St. Gregory the Great, who was too credulous in such kind of matters) it became famous for many miracles. 28. St. Augustin, §. 5. St. Augustin was born at Togaste, a town in Numidia in Africa, in the year 354. He ap- bishop of Hippo. plied himself at first only to human learning, such as poetry and plays, rhetoric and philosophy; being professor at Rome first, and afterwards at Milan. At the last of these places St. Ambrose became acquainted with him, who instructed him in divinity, and set him right as to some wrong notions which he had imbibed. He returned into Africa about the year 388, and three years afterwards was chosen bishop of Hippo. He was a great and judicious divine, and the most voluminous writer of all the Fathers. He died in the year 430, at seventy-seven years of age. Baptist. §. 6. The twenty-ninth of this month, as Du- 29. Beheading randus says, was formerly called Festum collec- of Saint John tionis S. Johan. Baptista, or the feast of gathering up St. John the Baptist's Relics; and afterwards by corruption, Festum decollationis, the feast of his beheading. For the occasion of the honours done to this saint are said to be some miraculous cures performed by his relics in the fourth century for which reason Julian the Apostate ordered them to be burnt, but some of them were privately reserved. His head was found after this, in the emperor Valens's time, and reposited as a precious relic in a church at Constantinople. SECT. IX. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in September. fessor. Giles, or Egidius, was one who was born at Sept. 1. Giles, Athens, and came into France, A. D. 715, having abbot and confirst disposed of his patrimony to charitable uses. He lived two years with Cæsarius bishop of Arles, and afterwards took to an hermitical life, till he was made abbot of an abbey at Nismes, which the king, who had found him in his cell by chance as he was hunting, and was pleased with his sanctity, built for his sake. He died in the year 795. 7. Eunurchus, leans. Be §. 2. Eunurchus, otherwise called Evortius, bishop of Or- was bishop of Orleans in France, being present at the Council of Valentia, A. D. 375. The circumstances of his election to this see were very strange. ing sent by the Church of Rome into France, about redeeming some captives, at the time when the people of Orleans were in the heat of an election of a bishop; a dove lighted upon his head, which he could not, without great difficulty, drive away. The people observing this, took it for a sign of his great sanctity, and immediately thought of choosing him bishop: but not being willing to proceed to election, till they were assured that the lighting of the dove was by the immediate direction of Providence, they prayed to God that, if he in his goodness designed him for their bishop, the same dove might light upon him again, which immediately happening after their prayers, he was chosen bishop by the unanimous suffrages of the whole city. Besides this, several other miracles are attributed to him; as the quenching a fire in the city by his prayers; his directing the digging of the foundation of a church, in such a place, where the workmen found a pot of gold, almost sufficient to defray the charges of the building: his converting seven thousand infidels to Christianity within the space of three days and lastly, for foretelling his own death, and in a sort of prophetical manner naming Arianus for his successor. : 8. Nativity of gin Mary. §. 3. The eighth of this month is dedicated to the blessed Vir- the memory of the blessed Virgin's nativity, a consort of angels having been heard in the air to solemnize that day as her birthday. Upon which account the day itself was not only kept holy in after-ages; but it was also honoured by pope Innocent IV. with an octave, A. D. 1244, and by Gregory XI. with a vigil in the year 1370. §. 4. The fourteenth of this month is called 14. Holy-cross- Holy-cross-day, a festival deriving its beginning day. about the year 615, on this occasion: Cosroes king of Persia having plundered Jerusalem, (after having made great ravages in other parts of the Christian world,) took away from thence a great piece of the cross, which Helena had left there: and, at the times of his mirth, made sport with that and the Holy Trinity. Heraclius the emperor giving him battle, defeated the enemy, and recovered the cross but bringing it back with triumph to Jerusalem, he found the gates shut against him, and heard a voice from heaven, which told him, that the King of kings did not enter into that city in so stately a manner, but meek and lowly, and riding upon an ass. With that the emperor dismounted from his horse, and went into the city not only afoot, but barefooted, and carrying the wood of the cross himself. Which honour done to the cross gave rise to this festival. 17. Lambert, §. 5. Lambert was bishop of Utrecht in the time of king Pepin I. But reproving the king's bishop and grandson for his lewd amours, he was, by the martyr. contrivance of one of his concubines, barbarously murdered. Being canonized, he at first only obtained a commemoration in the calendar; till Robert bishop of Leeds in a general chapter of the Cistercian order procured a solemn feast to his honour, A. D. 1240. 26. Saint Cy martyr. §. 6. St. Cyprian was by birth an African, of a good family and education. Before his con- prian, bishop of version he taught rhetoric; but by the persua- Carthage, and sion of one Cæcilius, a priest, (from whom he had his surname,) he became a Christian. And giving all his substance to the poor, he was elected bishop of Carthage in the year 248. He behaved himself with great prudence in the Decian persecution, persuading the people to constancy and perseverance: which so enraged the heathen, that they made proclamation for his discovery in the open theatre. He suffered martyrdom September 14, A. D. 258, under Valerianus and Gallienus, having foretold that storm long before, and disposed his flock to bear it accordingly. But the Cyprian in the Roman calendar cele- The Cyprian in brated on this day, as appears by the Roman the Roman Breviary, is not the same with St. Cyprian of calendar a differCarthage, but another Cyprian of Antioch, who ent person. of a conjurer was made a Christian, and afterwards a deacon and a martyr. He happened to be in love with one Justina, a beautiful young Christian; whom trying, without success, to debauch, he consulted the Devil upon the matter, who frankly declared he had no power over good Christians. Cyprian, not pleased with this answer of the Devil, quitted his service, and turned Christian. But as soon as it was known, both he and Justina were accused before the heathen governor, who condemned them to be fried in a frying-pan |